Of dotage..? 15 10 20 (19) 25 2 14

It was a very sad sight this older guy trying to stand up after evidently falling off his bike..? But hey isn't it G who recently joined our swimming club?

I was sitting with my wife in a new restaurant we have in town, a Thai and we were having spring rolls and coffee on a Sunday afternoon after our walk when the sight of G in trouble caught our attention. But someone was on hand to help him to the outside tables of our restaurant where we got a closer look at him although he hadn't seen us and he appeared as if he may have had a wee bit too much to drink..?

The guy who helped him cross the street also brought him a mug of coffee from the restaurant but he couldn't settle to drink it for he wanted to be on his way embarrassed no doubt as the scene unfolded. So it was little surprise when again he faltered trying to gain control of his bike, falling again and this time I went to his aid as he was on his own again...helping him back into his chair and imploring him to try to drink the coffee because the reason for his predicament was becoming clearer...

Then he spoke the words: "I am drunk" as if to say I am not used to being in this condition. Well, seeing his hands covered in blood it was clear he had injured himself probably to one of his hands so that E my wife said she would go for her car so she could take him home, leaving me to stay with him and then push his bike home. "I have been drinking because I have fallen in love with this woman but she doesn't love me..." issued forth from his lips as the poor man did his best to escape his discomfiture. I told him it happens to all of us from time to time, that is the drinking, not the falling in love, so I was saying to him...But he was disconsolate: "I can't get her out of mind and the thing goes round and round in my head.."

G had lost his wife 3 or 4 years ago and had had a relationship with a lady in the town who moved away maybe a year ago. Not so far that he couldn't go and visit her from time to time but too far for their relationship to survive the dislocation, and who this new object of his affections was remained unclear...

Well today 2 days later as I went about my business walking first to the shops with my little rucksack on my back then to the beach hut where we change to take our daily dip in the sea and I got to review G’s case as I walked along exclaiming out loud at one point: “Poor G he must be getting into his dotage!” Not an expression I can ever remember using before but one that had lain passive in my vocabulary all these years since childhood when I heard it for the first time and learnt its approximate meaning, and now I’m thinking “Lucky you, to still have your wife etc., etc., etc.”

For the purpose of this blog I googled dotage just to make sure I had the right meaning of which I learned there are two, to do with 1) senility and 2) a foolish infatuation. Of course the etymology derives from the verb to dote and hence the expression about someone being in their dotage. Oh so graphic a description for poor G. To say it is foolish however is one step too far if not down-right ageist!


When I returned home I told my wife about another person who had appeared with her husband and 2 children one Sunday for one of the outings another club we belong to puts on from time to time, a lady who subsequently separated and divorced from her husband leaving the two children with him and moving on. Telling her perhaps the reason is that she appears to be pregnant with another child..? Well the divorce happened quite a long time ago she corrected me and added she is not surprised for he, the husband had no manners and was a sullen type, whilst the lady is just the opposite. Poor G not a candidate at his old age for such an adventure, just retired, but there you go he had his time for being young and raising his family to adulthood and now he is approaching the age of his dotage I do hope he will succeed in putting the present lady of his mistaken affection out of his mind..! as I hope the lady now pregnant has more luck in her new relationship..? Have a good day everybody as I hope you too are more fortunate than G..? 

First titled "An old man in his dotage..?" 15 10 20 (19 hits)

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